5 High-Tech Earmarks Hidden in the Pentagon's New Budget

You've heard about the earmarks in the recent $700 billion bailout, but what about the recently passed 2009 Defense Appropriations Bill? It's not all about tanks, fighter jets and bullets: The defense bill has traditionally been a magnet for earmarks (also known as pork barrel or member projects) that tend to benefit companies or initiatives in the lawmakers' home districts or states. Congress, in approving the budget, appropriated billions of dollars to R&D programs that the Pentagon did not ask for. This year's bill contains 2025 earmarks worth $4.8 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog.

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1. Copper Antimicrobial Research Program

$1.6 million

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., takes credit for this earmark that goes to the Olin Corporation in his state to find ways to reduce hospital-acquired infections in the Defense Department's healthcare facilities. Copper kills some bacteria when it comes in contact with them, opening up a wider use of the metal in medical applications. Experts say that copper-impregnated beddings as well as wound care products have eradicated infection-causing micro-organisms that spread in medical facilities during routine activities, such as bed-making, that can release large quantities of harmful agents into the air. The money will help several healthcare facilities convert their flat surface spaces to copper alloys and fund clinical trials into the most effective copper-based applications to stop infections. Studies show that hospital infections kill 100,000 of the 2 million Americans who contract them.

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2. Prototype Magnetic Levitation Test Track

$4 million

The 46th Test Group at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico already manages a 10-mile-long, high-speed test track--supposedly the longest, most precisely surveyed and best-instrumented track in the world. Now, the group is overseeing the development of a Magnetic Levitation Track, also known as MagLev. MagLev will use a rocket-mounted sled designed to reach Mach 10 to test high-speed weapons systems. Air Force research into heat-seeking devices, such as the heat-seeking sensors that guide ballistic weapons, will be mounted atop the MagLev sled and sent speeding down the test track. The goal for the MagLev testing isn't to break new speed barriers, but to reduce vibration in order to study and test sensitive objects such as sensors, fuses and smart bombs. The program has been in development for several years. General Atomics is the main contractor developing the track with the Air Force, but is also working with Foster-Miller, Boeing and Bechtel. Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., as well as Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., have championed this earmark.

3. LongWave Length Array

$2.8 million

The slogan of the LongWave Length Array (LWA) program at the University of New Mexico is "Catching Big Waves with Small Blades." The LWA will be a low-frequency radio telescope designed to produce high-resolution images in the frequency range of 10 to 88 MHz, one of the most poorly explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. One of the primary goals of LWA is to gain an understanding of ionospheric weather which can disrupt navigation systems like GPS, military communications systems and other commercial and defense systems. These worries have prompted the Pentagon to prepare lower-tech backup systems. The ionosphere causes distortions in radio telescope images and these effects become worse at low frequencies.

Researchers will also use the LWA to search for faint and distant traces of the beginning of the universe; to study the distribution of cosmic rays in the Milky Way Galaxy and to search for planets in other solar systems, according to literature from the University of New Mexico. New Mexico's congressional delegation made sure the University of New Mexico will receive the funds to continue the project.

4. Fibrin Adhesive Stat (FAST) Dressing

$3 million

The lawmakers who pushed for this earmark claim that the FAST dressing is the only wound dressing that is effective against all kinds of blood loss including severed arteries and veins. The FDA has not approved its use, but fibrin tissue adhesives promote clotting wherever they are applied. The material is biodegradable--a human body can break fibrin down just as it would metabolize a blood clot. Lawmakers from biomedical-research-heavy states like Maryland, North Carolina and New York are pressing for the production of these dressings.

5. Human-Neural-Cell-Based Biosensor

$1 million

Toxins represent a growing concern for both military and civilian agencies. While traditional detector technologies are excellent at finding and quantifying known threats, there is a need for a sensor that utilizes biology to detect unknown substances and hazardous combinations of otherwise nonthreatening compounds. The University of Georgia has developed techniques to control the differentiation of human stem cells (from approved cell lines) into neural networks. Aruna Biomedical, of Athens, Ga., obtained the exclusive commercial license from the University of Georgia for human neural cells in biosensing applications, ensuring the support of Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.